It’s one of the most extreme cases of animal cruelty one animal shelter said they’ve ever seen.
Where the Love Is Animal Shelter rescued an 8-year-old pit bull mix named “Ryder” who was severely underweight with a massive open wound from a home in Hamden late last month. They believe she was left outside for some time.
“It appeared to us that she was left outside with little to no care or food or shelter,” said volunteer Julia Pisani. “This is horrible to see a dog like this, it really breaks your heart.”
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State Animal Control is now investigating.
“She has a very large open wound on her hind leg from an abscess that burst. She’s still battling her weight, she still has a lot more weight to put on,” said Pisani.
Volunteers with the organization said they rushed Ryder to an animal hospital in North Haven where she spent 15 days in the ICU. She was discharged on Monday.
“She’s doing better, she’s made a lot of improvements, but as the doctor says, we’re cautiously optimistic. With any open wound, you risk infection, so it’s really a careful situation trying to get her to 100%,” Pisani said.
Russ Meister is fostering her as she heals.
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“When she first was admitted she was 21 pounds. As of last night, she was 27.4, so she’s putting on a good amount of weight, she should be about 50 pounds though,” Meister said.
He’s bringing her to hospital checkups every other day to get her wound treated.
“After a couple days of a good amount of food, she’s really opened up, she wants to play, she shows her belly sometimes,” he added. “She’s extremely loving, so, it’s amazing that after being treated the way she does that she’s so willing to love and trust people.”
Ryder’s care is costly, already mounting to more than $15,000.
“After her 15-day stay here in the ICU, her bills have totaled over $15,000. She comes back every two days for wound care and so that keeps adding up and there’s some talks about future operations just on the wound care side of things,” Pisani said. “Our hope for Ryder is that we get her to 100% and she never has to worry about where her next meal will come from or if her humans will ever leave her again.”
The organization is holding a dog washing fundraiser on Sunday starting at 8:30 a.m. at Hot Diggity Dog Grooming Parlor in Hamden.
